Also known as Rat-Folk, the laws which traditionally restrained Yskoi to lower spheres and cramped ghettos have been revoked over the past hundred years, yet most Yskoi still live in poverty. The term for a Yskoi settlement, a warren, is used interchangeably with the word slum, though declining economic prospects have driven many non-Yskoi into the ever more cramped warrens. Yskoi have always had a deeply pluralistic and communitarian culture, making Skaven Warrens a melting pot of the empire. It is on the basis of Yskoi political culture that democracy has spread throughout the empire, and reform has spread through the church. Skaven are also famed for their inventiveness, and some Yskoi are able to escape the warrens and end up as middle class professionals, though not without becoming mistrusted by their former fellows. They are the second most represented after humans in the emerging merchant class. The Knights of the Court Below (KCB) is an organization which emerged during the Umbral War and serves as a de-facto parallel government of most warrens. Its militant wing has a rocky history with bombings and assassinations, most recently during the Obratan riots. Though many of its actions are technically illegal, the less violent of these are ignored by the Imperial Government which has chosen to selectively not enforce some laws to promote peace with the KCB, though this has been challenged by the recently elected Chancellor. [More on these last three sentences later.] Yskoi traditionally use German names and are Medium rather than Small.